Mac track teams tune up for national meet

Scott Hutchinson continued his stellar sprinting season this past weekend, collecting two silver medals to lead the Marauder track teams at the Ontario University Athletics championships in Windsor.

The fourth-year standout finished second in the 300-metre event in a time of 34.53, before leading the men’s 4x200m relay team – that included Rudy Baronette, Connor Mabbott and Garrick Mok – out of the gate and on the way to a silver-medal finish of its own. Baronette finished close behind Hutchinson in the 300m race, with his time of 36.10 placing him eighth.

Rookie runner Taylor Forbes provided the top performance for the Marauder men in the long distance field, with a seventh-place finish in the 1,500m event. Three McMaster runners placed in the top 20 of the men’s 3,000m field, with Keenan Viney (15th), Blair Morgan (16th), and Gabriel Ghiglione (17th) finishing together in the ‘B’ section.

The Mac men’s team finished eighth against 12 schools.

Victoria Coates was the familiar front-runner for the McMaster women, nabbing a bronze medal in the 3,000m race on the first day of competition, before following up with an eighth-placed finish in the 1,500m event on Saturday. Coates will reprise her role at the 3,000m distance in Edmonton, when the Canadian Interuniversity Sport championships kick off on March 7.

Veteran competitor Jill Wyman enjoyed her last meet as a Marauder, finishing tenth in the 3,000m race before edging ahead of Coates for seventh in Saturday’s 1,500m race. Courtney Patterson also cracked the top ten at the 3,000m distance, finishing ninth with a time of 10:24.41.

McMaster’s female sprinters were also led by a familiar face, as Jessica Tat finished 11th in the 300m race (41.20), tenth at 600m (1:34.86) and seventh as part of the women’s 4x200m relay team that included teammates Latisha Rhooms, Kara McPherson and Laura Morrison.

The Marauders now enjoy a week away from competition, before those McMaster runners qualified to compete travel to Edmonton to take part in the CIS wrap up from March 7-10.